Luminous Compact Galaxies (LCGs) are enigmatic sources in many
aspects. They can reach the luminosity of the Milky Way within a
radius of only a few kpc. They also represent one of the most rapidly
evolving populations of galaxies since they represent up to 1/5 of the
luminous galaxies at redshift , while being almost absent in
the local Universe. The measurement of their dynamics is crucial to
our understanding of LCGs since this has the potential of telling us
which physical process(es) drive(s) them and ultimately link them to
the existing present-day galaxies. Here, we derive the 3-dimensional
velocity fields and velocity dispersion (σ) maps of 17 LCGs
selected from the Canada France Redshift Survey and the Hubble Deep
Field South with redshifts ranging from to . We find that
only 18% of them show rotational velocity fields typical of rotating
disks while the others show more complex kinematics. Assuming that
LCGs are not too far from equilibrium, about half of LCGs then appear
to be either non-relaxed objects, or objects that are not supported by
velocity dispersion alone. This supports the view that an important
fraction of LCGs are probably mergers. It brings additional support to
the “spiral rebuilding scenario” in which LCGs correspond to a
previous or post-merger phase before the disk re-building.

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